Eating fish 'cuts artery damage in smokers'

Eating fish can help reverse the artery damage caused by smoking which leads to heart attacks and strokes, scientists revealed yesterday.

Vitamin C was also beneficial, as was a gout treatment.

Irish scientists gave 15 smokers daily supplements of taurine, an amino acid, which exists in fish. Taurine lessened a harmful effect caused by smoking which causes blood vessels to lose their flexibility.

The condition, known as endothelial dysfunction, means that arteries are not able to dilate as they should. It is one of the earliest signs of atherosclerosis, the narrowing of arteries which is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes.

The team measured endothelial function by applying tourniquets to the forearms of smokers and non-smokers and taking ultrasound scans.

In non-smokers the tourniquet stimulated blood vessels in the arm to dilate, but smokers' blood vessels were virtually unchanged. There was no difference between the two groups when smokers were given a daily taurine supplement.

David Bouchier-Hayes, from Beaumont hospital in Dublin, who published the findings in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, said: "We're not trying to find a therapeutic treatment for smoking, because we believe that the best therapy for smokers is to stop smoking - smokers provide a good clinical model for treatment of endothelial dysfunction."